Appealed to my adventurous side. As a kid I wandered in the woods and climbed on rocks, so back then this would have been an absolutely perfect book. Loved all the different creatures, and how Lidngren described the relationship of Ronja and her father.

I finally managed to push myself to read up on World War I, which has so far been a fuzzy area in history for me (apart from the Russian Revolution). I still can't say that I know the events well enough, but at least now I get the difference between this and the Second World War.

The Finnish translation wasn't that impressive, but what made reading this even more difficult were all the listings of the troop movements. A huge amount of dates and places is not my idea of engaging war history (especially since I'm not that enthusiastic about it in the first place), but makes it mind-numbing and faceless. So my expectations didn't meet with what I got, because I wanted to know more about the things visible in the photos, like new weapons and other battle related things (the text mentions mustard gas, but only briefly), the reality of what it was like at the front (maybe even told by the soldiers themselves), and general practical things of the war. The collection of photographs, however, was excellent. Even though there were some repetitiveness with all the similar ships and weapons, I would still recommend having a look at them.

I did manage to gather some interesting pieces of information, though, and I'm most certainly going to be reading more about them, when I can find some in depth descriptions (preferably cultural history).

This did leave me wondering, who the photographers were and what they felt about working in the battle fields. Were they hired specifically for this job? In any case, some of the expressions on the men's faces are eerie, and not just because most of them never saw their home again but died in the middle of rotting corpses.

A Canadian military doctor John McCrae wrote this poem on May 2 1915, when his friend was found dead on a field in the midst of millions of poppies. A touching inclusion to the book.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
scare heard amid the guns below

We are the dead, short days ago
we lived, felt dawn. Saw sunset glow,
loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
the torch. Be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
we shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field.

The most interesting aspects for me in ancient Egypt have always been mummies and mummification (a document I once saw where they mummified a present-day human was lovely, but also slightly revolting), so it wasn't a surprise the particular chapter concerning that was my favourite. Although it was pretty short, so I was left wondering whether there might be even more information available on cat mummies and their burial. Still, I'd recommend this for both cat and history lovers. The formation of Egyptian society is briefly recounted at the beginning. To get a proper context of the importance of cats in religion and art, their basics are also useful for those not familiar with these concepts in Egyptian style.

Everytime I wanted to get this from the library, someone else already had it. I sometimes forget I'm not the only avid user of libraries :P Anyway, it was well worth the agonising wait. An eclectic collection of short stories with a dash of articles and non-fiction here and there, also including a fascinating "historical evidence" -section. I'm personally more interested in 19th century vampires, so I was pleasantly surprised that the emphasis is on pre-1950s. Someone else may however consider it a bit disappointing. I also liked the idea of commentary, which expanded the topics and helped in putting the stories into context.

I'm not that into young adult literature (at all actually), but overall I liked the idea in this, and that it's set at the beginning of the 20th century. The execution was unsatisfying. The bits where characters argued about women's rights and were sad about Titanic felt out of place, like Gripe definitely wanted something to scream the time period, but couldn't decide where to put them so she jammed them somewhere where they seemed to fit. They didn't. The characters were also unlikeable and sometimes behaved oddly and unnaturally. The biggest problem for me however was the whole mystery of the photograph itself. I don't know if it was because things are made more obvious in books for young adults or what, but I guessed what was going on pretty quickly. The mystery of the twin brother was lame as well. I was also hoping something more about the father's interest in Swedenborg, since it reminded me of Uncle Silas, but I guess it wasn't supposed to be important.

The second part of the series seems interesting, though, so maybe I'll have a look at some point if I feel like it.

Anna Liisan voisi helposti tulkita taas vain yhtenä alistettuna naisena, joka rypee kohtalossaan ja alistuu muiden tahtoon. Viejinä ovat vuorotellen niin miehet kuin oma perhekin. Viimeistään lopussa kuitenkin ymmärtää miten suurta taakkaa noin nuori tyttö on joutunut kantamaan, ja miten valtavan painava se on hänen harteillaan ollut. Möykky rinnassa on ollut neljän vuoden ajan, ja vaikka sen on voinut ehkä hetkellisesti unohtaa, se ei ole kuitenkaan mihinkään hävinnyt. Muiden ohimennen sanotut lauseet voivat toisinaan muistuttaa tapahtuneesta. Tällaisen tunteen kantamiseen tarvitaan jo äärimmäistä voimakkuutta. Tästä kuitenkin päästään siihen, miten Anna Liisa lopulta tulee lopulliseen päätökseensä. Melkoisen ylipaatoksellinen loppukohtaus ja ehkä jopa hieman epäuskottavan äkkinäinen. Toisinaan vuorosanatkin vaikuttavat toisteiselta jahkailulta.

Näytelmä kuitenkin ansaitsee kiitosta ja arvostusta siitä, miten se ottaa kantaa yhteiskunnallisiin asioihin syyllisyyden lisäksi. Miehet voivat tällaisissa tapauksissa halutessaan jatkaa elämäänsä niin kuin mitään ei olisi tapahtunut. He voivat seikkailla maailmalla ja olettaa jonkun aina heitä odottavan. 1800-luvun Suomi vaikuttaa äärettömän ankealta paikalta, jossa Jumalaa pelkäävät ihmiset ovat äkkiä tuomitsemassa ja surkuttelemassa. Naiset ovat vastuussa lapsiin liittyvistä asioista, ja Anna Liisa saa tilanteessaan niskaansa ne kaikkein rankimmat syytökset. Lopun koittaessa Anna Liisa ei kuitenkaan vapaudu taakastaan täysin sisäisestä vahvuudestaan huolimatta, sillä hyviäkin ihmisiä täytyy rangaista virheistään. Koska Anna Liisa saakaan olla Anna Liisa? Omanlaisensa persoona, vapaa muiden vaikutuksesta ja ohjailusta?

Entä voisiko yli 100-vuotiaasta näytelmästä poimia jotain 2000-luvullekin ajankohtaista?

I was probably the wrong audience for this, since I'm not a big Tolkien enthusiast, but I was curious. Turns out, this wasn't meant to be published, but this was Tolkien's gift for his secretary. I don't see the point of publishing a very short poem as an individual book. Baynes's illustrations are lovely as always, but this just seems more like her picture book with a couple of Tolkien's verses slapped on. I presume it's supposed to be the other way around, and Tolkien's poems are usually pretty average. Or maybe I just don't see what a hardcore fan would.